Will you yet hold?-How came my man i' the

stocks ?

CORN. I set him there, sir: but his own disor

ders

Deserv'd much less advancement.

LEAR.

You did you?

REG. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so' If, till the expiration of your month,

You will return and sojourn with my sister,
Dismissing half your train, come then to me;
I am now from home, and out of that provision
Which shall be needful for your entainment.
LEAR. Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd ?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the enmity o' the air;
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,-
Necessity's sharp pinch 2!-Return with her?
Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took
Our youngest born, I could as well be brought

9 - much less ADVANCEMENT.] The word advancement is ironically used for conspicuousness of punishment; as we now say, a man is advanced to the pillory. We should read :

but his own disorders

"Deserv'd much more advancement." JOHNSON.

By less advancement is meant, a still worse or more disgraceful situation; a situation not so reputable. PERCY.

Cornwall certainly means, that Kent's disorders had entitled him even to a post of less honour than the stocks. STEEVENS. 1 I pray you, father, being weak, SEEM SO.] The meaning is, since you are weak, be content to think yourself weak. JOHNSON. 2 No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose

To WAGE against the enmity o' the air;

To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,

NECESSITY'S SHARP PINCH!] To wage is often used absolutely without the word war after it, and yet signifies to make war as before in this play :

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My life I never held but as a pawn

"To wage against thine enemies."

The words "necessity's sharp pinch!" appear to be the reflection of Lear on the wretched sort of existence he had described in the preceding lines. STEEVens.

3

4

To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg
To keep base life afoot:-Return with her?
Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
To this detested groom. [Looking on the Steward.
GON.
At your choice, sir.

LEAR. I pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad;

I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell:

We'll no more meet, no more see one another :-
But yet thou art my flesh3, my blood, my daughter;
Or, rather, a disease that's in my flesh *,

Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil 6,
A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,

3

4

* Quartos, that lies within my flesh.

base life] i. e. In a servile state.

JOHNSON.

and SUMPTER -] Sumpter is a horse that carries necessaries on a journey, though sometimes used for the case to carry them in.-See Beaumont and Fletcher's Noble Gentleman, Seward's edit. vol. viii. note 35; and Cupid's Revenge :

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I'll have a horse to leap thee,

"And thy base issue shall carry sumpters." Again, in Webster's Duchess of Malfy, 1623: "His is indeed a guarded sumpter-cloth,

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Only for the remove o' the court." STEEVENS.

5 But yet thou art MY FLESH, &c.] So, in King Henry VI. Part I. :

6

“God knows, thou art a collop of my flesh." STEEVENS. thou art a BOIL, &c.] The word in the old copies is written byle, and all the modern editors have too strictly followed them. The mistake arose from the word boil being often pronounced as if written bile. In the folio, we find in Coriolanus the same false spelling as here:

"Byles [boils] and plagues
"Plaster you o'er!"
MALONE.

7 A PLAGUE-SORE,] So, in Thomas Lupton's Fourth Booke of Notable Thinges, bl. 1. 4to. : If you wyll knowe whether one shall escape or not, that is infected with the plague, (having the plague-sore) give the partie, &c. And also anoint the plaguesore," &c. The plague-sore, we may suppose, was the decisive

mark of infection.

STEEVENS.

8 — EMBOSSED carbuncle,] Embossed is swelling, protuberant. JOHNSON.

In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee;
Let shame come when it will, I do not call it :

I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot,
Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove :
Mend, when thou canst; be better, at thy leisure:
I can be patient; I can stay with Regan,

I, and my hundred knights.

REG.

Not altogether so, sir; I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided

For your fit welcome: Give ear, sir, to my sister;
For those that mingle reason with your passion,
Must be content to think you old, and so—
But she knows what she does.

Is this well spoken now?

LEAR.
REG. I dare avouch it, sir: What, fifty followers?
Is it not well? What should you need of more?
Yea, or so many? sith that both charge and danger
Speak 'gainst so great a number? How, in one
house,

Should many people, under two commands,
Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.

GON. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance

From those that she calls servants, or from mine? REG. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack you,

We could control them: If you will come to me, (For now I spy a danger,) I entreat you

To bring but five and twenty: to no more

Will I give place, or notice.

LEAR. I gave you all

REG.

And in good time you gave it.

LEAR. Made you my guardians, my depositaries; But kept a reservation to be follow'd

So, in Timon of Athens:

"Whom once a day with his embossed froth
"The turbulent surge shall cover."

STEEVENS.

With such a number: What, must I come to you With five and twenty, Regan? said you so?

REG. And speak it again, my lord; no more with

me.

Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look wellfavour'd,

When others are more wicked; not being the

worst,

Stands in some rank of praise :-I'll go with thee; [To GONERIL.

Thy fifty yet doth double five and twenty,
And thou art twice her love.

GON.
Hear me, my lord;
What need you five and twenty, ten, or five,
To follow in a house, where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?

REG.

What need one?

LEAR. O, reason not the need: our basest beg

gars

Are in the poorest thing superfluous:

Allow not nature more than nature needs,

Man's life is cheap as beast's: thou art a lady;

If only to go warm were gorgeous,

Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,

9 Those WICKED creatures yet do look well-favour'd,

When others are more WICKED ;] A similar thought occurs in Cymbeline, Act V.:

"That all the abhorred things o' the earth amend,
"By being worse than they." STEEVENS.

Again, in Cymbeline:

'Then thou look'dst like a villain; now, methinks,
"Thy favour's good enough." MALONE.

This passage, I think, should be pointed thus:

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"Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd,
When others are more wicked; not being the worst
"Stands in some rank of praise.”

That is, to be not the worst deserves some praise. TYRWHITT.

Which scarcely keeps thee warm.-But, for true

need,

You heavens, give me that patience, patience I

need1!

You see me here, you gods, a poor old man 2,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger!
O, let not women's weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man's cheeks!-No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,

That all the world shall-I will do such things,-
What they are, yet I know not3; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think, I'll weep;
No, I'll not weep:-

I

PATIENCE, PATIENCE, I need!] I believe the word patience was repeated inadvertently by the compositor. MALONE. The compositor has repeated the wrong word: Read:

"You heavens, give me that patience that I need." Or, still better, perhaps :

2

3

"You heavens, give me patience!—that I need." RITSON. -poor old man,] The quarto has, "poor old fellow."

I will do such things,—

What they are, yet I know not ;]

magnum est quodcunque paravi,

Quid sit, adhuc dubito.

haud quid sit scio,

Sed grande quiddam est.

Ovid. Met. lib. vi.

Seneca Thyestes.

JOHNSON.

Let such as are unwilling to allow that copiers of nature must occasionally use the same thoughts and expressions, remember, that of both these authors there were early translations.

I have since met with an apparent imitation of Seneca, in The Misfortunes of Arthur, a tragedy, 1587:

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somewhat my minde portendes, Uncertayne what: but whatsoeuer, it's huge!"

Evidently from Golding's translation, 1567:

STEEVENS.

The thing that I do purpose on is great, whatere it is "I know not what it may be yet." RITSON.